Comedy and Audiences

Special Issue of Participations: Journal of Audience and Reception Studies

The theme of this issue will be a general exploration of the comedy audience, with both theoretical and empirical research welcomed on all aspects of comedy reception. The issue will be particularly interested in the notion of ‘the power of the comedy audience’, examining the extent to which comic audiences are aware of their position (or lack of) as comedy mediators, and how far audience status is a recognised and articulated notion. Possible, though not exclusive, topics include:
• Comedy fandom(s);
• Comedy taste(s);
• Responses to cultural representations in comedy;
• Empirical studies of particular comedy programmes, films, stand-up performances and other comedy texts;
• The particularities and specifics of comedy audiences;
• Comedy audiences in regional, local, national and international contexts;
• Comedy in all its forms, and across a range of media and performance contexts;
• Differences in comedy audiences, due to contexts such as age, nationality, belief system, and so on.

Please send expressions of interest, including a short abstract, to Tom Phillips (T.Phillips@uea.ac.uk) by 10 December 2010. Please also contact Tom with any queries or requests for further information. Completed articles will have a submission deadline of 10 June 2011.

The issue will be edited by Sam Friedman, Brett Mills and Tom Phillips.